Policy Reform and Off-farm Labor Supply by Operators in the Delta Region: A

Abstract

Off-farm employment has been an integral part of the emerging structure of production agriculture in the South. Government farm program payments, farm structure, and strong non-farm economy have important impact on labor allocation, farm and non-farm labor, decision of farm operators. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the determinants of off-farm labor supply for farm operators in the Delta States. Results show that off-farm work, educational level, presence of teenager, and farm tenure positive and significant impact on ff-farm labor supply by farm operators. On the other hand, farm size, household wealth, decoupled and couple farm program payments, and degree of farm diversification have a negative and significant impact on off-farm labor supply by farm operators. the semiparametreic functional formulation of the farm size and household wealth variables were found to perform better than the linear functional form.Off-farm labor supply, Delta region, Tobit, semiparametric, government farm program payments, education, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital,